''Love Like Poison'' (french: Un poison violent, ) is a 2010 French

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

drama film directed by

Katell Quillévéré Katell Quillévéré (born 30 January 1980) is a French film director and screenwriter, known for directing the films ''Love Like Poison'' (2010) and '' Suzanne'' (2013). In 2015 she was selected to be a member of the jury for the International ...

and starring Clara Augarde,

Lio Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos (born 17 June 1962), known professionally as Lio, is a Portuguese-Belgian singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s. Life and career Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furt ...

and

Michel Galabru Michel Louis Edmond Galabru (27 October 19224 January 2016) was a French actor. Career Galabru appeared in more than 250 films and worked with directors such as Bertrand Blier, Costa-Gavras, Luc Besson (for ''Subway''), and Jean-Luc Godard. ...

. The film's title is taken from the song "Un poison violent, c'est ça l'amour" by Serge Gainsbourg. It was screened in the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Prix Jean Vigo in 2010.

Plot

Anna is a 14-year-old spending the summer holidays with her mother in her grandfather's family home in Brittany. The grandfather is old and confined to his bedroom. Her mother meanwhile is having crisis with her married life and is on the verge of moving back with her parents. Anna and her mother are religious. Anna is upset by the separation of her parents and gets close with male figures. A local teenage boy is attracted with her and she reciprocates the attention. Despite her shame of her body she finds confidence in exploring her sexuality. She begins to show fainting spells at gatherings. She is anxious about her confirmation and confides it with the priest, who is her mother past lover. She is torn between her unsympathetic world in front of her and faith, but she finds happiness by embracing her teenage emotions and asks out the local boy whom she have spent time.

Cast

* Clara Augarde as Anna Falguères *

as Jeanne Falguères *

as Jean Falguères *

Stefano Cassetti Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ac ...

as Father François *

Thierry Neuvic Thierry Neuvic (born 3 August 1970) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since 1996. He starred in the film ''Code Unknown'', which was selected in the 2000 Cannes Film Festival The 53rd Cannes Film Fes ...

as Paul Falguères * Youen Leboulanger-Gourvil as Pierre * Philippe Duclos as The Bishop

Production

Clara Augarde, who was 14 year old during filming, agreed to have topless scenes, but she refused to play the one where her character lifts her nightgown to show her genitals (An older body double replaced her).

Reception

, the film holds a 93% approval rating on the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 14 reviews with an average rating 7.89/10.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Love Like Poison 2010 films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s French-language films French coming-of-age drama films Films about religion Films directed by Katell Quillévéré 2010 directorial debut films 2010 drama films 2010s French films